A Journalism professor spoke in the lobby of the Main Library about the ongoing projects on how the media covers border issues. Celeste Gonzalez de Bustamante, professor in the UA School of Journalism, designed a lecture called “”Keeping it Real Along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Challenges and Struggles in the Midst of Arizona’s Firestorm.””
According to Gabrielle Sykes-Casavant, the director of marketing and public relations at the Main Library, speakers for the Tuesday Talks are selected by a group of three or four librarians. “”They usually have faculty connections and can find out what research professor’s having going on and invite them to come,”” she said.
Bustamante is currently involved in co-editing a book called “”History of the Border”” and is involved in many research projects. An analysis of the SB1070 bill is also in the work, and she is working with a professor form the University of Michigan.
“”My research is mostly on television news coverage and on how television news reporters portrayed undocumented immigrants,”” Bustamante said. “”What I found is that they used a lot of negative stereotypes,”” she said.
Bustamante showed the audience a photo taken of an illegal immigrant. She said this was one of the things that she hopes would impact people and drive journalists to seek out a better way to portray what is going on in the border.
“”Local coverage doesn’t allow for a greater global understanding by concentrating. From a teaching perspective, you have to understand that not everyone is really passionate about border issues and there’s a fine line between that and forcing students to be interested,”” she said.
Bustamante hopes to do other research projects, like the “”Beyond the Border”” one where she and eight students went to New York City to report, but “”the biggest issue is funding.””
Bustamante has a class within the School of Journalism that created a documentary, and a screening of the film will be shown today at the Main Library at 3:30 p.m. The documentary is 30 minutes long, and the producers, whom are all students, will be at the showing along with Bustamante to answer questions afterwards.
